The Asus Chromebox M004U is a great alternative to buying yet another cheap Windows desktop and it's a steal for the price.

The Asus Chromebox M004U ($179) is a great alternative to buying yet another cheap Windows desktop. Chrome OS gives you a quick way onto the Internet, plus Web apps from Google. It's a much better option than current Android-equipped options like HP's Slate all-in-one desktops, but it stops short of full Windows program compatibility. True to its capabilities, the Chromebox M004U gets you on the Web and using both regular and mobile versions of sites for under $180. That's an amazing deal, and helps Asus Chromebox M004U win our first Editors' Choice for Chromebox desktops.

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Design and Features
The Chromebox M004U measures a compact 1.75 by 5 by 5 inches (HWD). It resembles media boxes like the Apple TV or Roku 3 in terms of form factor, but it's a bit heftier since it has a plethora of I/O ports on its outer faces. Other systems that share this form factor are the Zotac Zbox Nano and the Lenovo IdeaCentre Q190. It is very close in size and appearance to the Intel NUC (Next Unit of Computing) Kit D54250WYK, which is also a compact, power-saving computer. The NUC is more of a whitebox, however, in which you have to install your own memory, hard drive, and operating system.

On Chrome OS, you will have to leave legacy programs like Microsoft Visio or Print Shop behind. Consequently, the fringe benefit is that you won't ever have to worry about Windows-based malware, and if you are your IT support for your family, you will know what I mean. You probably get the annual request to help because their Windows PC runs so slow. If you get your kids (or parents) a Chrome OS PC, you won't ever have to spend all Thanksgiving evening reinstalling the operating system while saving your parents' recipe files and emails from ten years ago. Emails and files stay in cloud storage, while the OS is constantly being updated and patched against malware threats. Even if the machine becomes hobbled by some future threat, Google's Powerwash will re-install the operating system to factory specs in a few minutes.

Everything runs in a full version of the Chrome browser, including most, if not all, of the x86-based browser plug-ins and Web apps you've become accustomed to. Office document creation and editing is as easy as bringing up Google Docs, and video streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime work fine in Chrome OS. Your bookmarks port over from the Chrome browser on your PC or Mac (as long as you've logged in with a Google account). Even plug-ins like Adblock Plus and Google Translate automatically install and work perfectly well on the Chromebox.

This is in stark contrast with the absolutely kludgy experience we had with the Android-based HP Slate 21 all-in-one desktop. Sure, we didn't have to worry about a screen, keyboard, or mouse with the Slate 21 (three things you'll have to supply for the Chromebox), but trying to use a mobile operating system like Android on a desktop is an exercise in futility. Fonts and UI elements were blown up to cartoonish levels on the HP Slate 21, but they will look like they normally do on your PC when you view them via the Chromebox M004U and a monitor.

The Samsung Series 3 Chromebox (XE300M22) was a better desktop overall than the HP Slate 21, but that two-year-old Chromebox was twice the price of the Chromebox M004U and lacked some of the Asus system's amenities, like HDMI and USB 3.0 ports. If there are any drawbacks to the Asus Chromebox, it's that you'll have to buy the keyboard and mouse separately before attaching the system to your HDTV or other monitor you have around the house.

There are four USB 3.0 ports, a HDMI port, DisplayPort, and an Ethernet port. Inside the non-user serviceable chassis there's an Intel Pentium processor with integrated Intel graphics, 2GB of system memory, and a 16GB solid-state drive (SSD) for local storage. While 16GB may be a little small, this seems like less of a problem for a desktop, since it will be connected pretty much all the time to the Internet. You can also hook up a USB 3.0 drive for more storage or pop an SD card into the built-in reader.

In addition to an Ethernet port, the M004U has dual-band 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluteooth 4.0. Google includes 100GB of Google Drive storage for two years after a purchase of a Chrome OS device. The Chromebox M004U comes with a one-year warranty.

Day-to-Day Use
In our tests, using the Chromebox M400U was as easy as it was to use a Chromebook: The system boots up and wakes up in seconds, you can easily get to your home pages with your Google account (once you've logged in the first time), and all your work in Chrome auto-saves to the cloud. Viewing streaming 1080p videos online was mostly a smooth experience (critical eyes will detect some slowdown after quick cuts), and you can hook up multiple monitors simultaneously via HDMI and DisplayPort. Google account settings and bookmarks will automatically propagate to the Chromebox once you log in, shortening setup time. Parents can set controls limiting child and guest accounts, which is a nice feature.

If you absolutely need Windows- or Mac-specific programs like the official Adobe Creative Suite and Microsoft Office, then you'll sadly have to pass this system by. Some businesses and schools require that you do your work using commercial software on Windows. That said, it was easy to open and edit most Office documents on the Chromebox M004U in Google Docs, and there are open-source substitutes for Adobe's Photoshop online that can edit your photos almost as well. I even started writing this review using Google Docs on the Chromebox and finished it in Office on a Mac.

The Asus Chromebox M004U is certainly a better system than the only other Chromebox we've reviewed, the pricey Samsung Series 3 Chromebox (XE300M22). The Chromebox M004U offers faster USB ports, a newer Celeron processor, HDMI, and a more compact chassis. At under $180, it's also a much better deal, and the Samsung Series 3 Chromebox stopped shipping over a year ago. HP and Dell have announced competing Chromebox desktops, but they haven't yet been released to the public. For a few hundred dollars more, you can get a screen, more storage, and a full Windows operating system with the Editors' Choice entry-level desktop Gateway ZX4270-UB31. But for the first time we can actually recommend a Chromebox, especially if you're on a very tight budget and all you want to do is view the Internet on a large screen. We're sure to see more examples of Chromeboxes in the future for this (slowly) developing category. Right now, the Asus Chromebox M004U is worth a serious look, and it's our first Editors' Choice for Chromebox desktops.

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About the Author

Joel Santo Domingo joined PC Magazine in 2000, after 7 years of IT work for companies large and small. His background includes managing mobile, desktop and network infrastructure on both the Macintosh and Windows platforms. Joel is proof that you can escape the retail grind: he wore a yellow polo shirt early in his tech career. Along the way Joel e... See Full Bio

Asus Chromebox M004U

Asus Chromebox M004U

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